Locus of Control and Attitudes toward Large Carnivores

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that the negative attitudes toward carnivores found among rural groups is only one element embedded in a larger sociopolitical complex of disputes over resource use and rural development. Negative attitudes may reflect a protest against increased control of land use by central political authorities. In a survey among sheep farmers, wildlife managers, and research biologists in Norway we found that the sheep farmers expressed an external locus of control, indicating a belief that external forces control events, relative to the two other groups. Among sheep farmers and research biologists a positive association was found between an external locus of control and negative attitudes toward large carnivores.